The Farr Side: ‘Brady Bunch’ is back on HGTV

David T. Farr More Content Now

Thursday

Sep 19, 2019 at 9:20 AM

Here’s a story about the house of The Bradys ...

The moment it made news HGTV purchased the landmark home from the iconic ’70s TV show, “The Brady Bunch,” it was going to happen. It was going to become a reality TV show of some sort. “A Very Brady Renovation” makes it debut on Home & Garden.

Could this be any more groovy? If you weren’t around in the ’70s or didn’t catch any of the countless reruns that surfaced for decades after, you might not see the appeal of “A Very Brady Renovation.” If you’re like me, then, this is far out! Ok, I’ll cool it on the Greg Brady verbiage.

If you remember the opening sequences of each episode, you can recall how the exterior of the house looked. It was a typical late-’60s bilevel home. The funny part: It was only ever shown that way. The inside is where most was filmed. But it was not the actual inside of that house. Nope! The interior was just a set, built on a Hollywood stage to resemble what we thought it would look like.

HGTV purchased the real home last year with the hope of being able to conjure some sort of show out of it. Could they really get Greg, Peter, Bobby, Marsha, Jan and Cindy to reunite as Bradys again? As if!

Barry Williams (Greg), Christopher Knight (Peter), Mike Lookinland (Bobby), Maureen McCormick (Marsha), Eve Plumb (Jan) and Susan Olsen (Cindy) are back and ready to demo the house where they “grew up.” The Brady siblings will be joined by HGTV designers from “Property Brothers,” “Good Bones,” “Restored By The Fords,” “Hidden Potential” and “Flea Market Flip” for the one of the network’s biggest projects yet.

The only thing missing is Alice, and Carol and Mike Brady. Ann B. Davis (Alice the housekeeper) passed away in 2014. Florence Henderson (Carol) died in 2016 and Robert Reed (Mike) passed in 1992.

Much hoopla has been made about the new renovation show, including cast responses to reuniting 45 years from the last air date of “The Brady Bunch.”

“We couldn’t sit at the dining room table without recognizing there are a few people missing. Standing on those famous stairs to take a photo, you could just feel those who were missing,” Knight said in an EW article. “Even just walking into the front door of the house, we remembered Bob walking in saying, ‘Hi honey, I’m home.’ I think we all rationalized that they were there with us in their own way.”

The show will feature each “Brady” renovating the home from demo to finish. Paramount even offered some of the original pieces used on the set.

HGTV is brilliant for doing this. Many of us who grew up watching the Bradys are now avid viewers of the network. I bet even George Glass will be watching. David T. Farr can be reached at farrboy@hotmail.com.